''Rolling Family'' ( es, Familia rodante) is a 2004
comedy drama
Comedy drama, also known by the portmanteau ''dramedy'', is a genre of dramatic works that combines elements of comedy and Drama (film and television), drama. The modern, scripted-television examples tend to have more humorous bits than simple co ...
film, written and directed by Pablo Trapero, and produced by various countries, including Argentina. The film's executive producers were Hugo Castro Fau and Martina Gusman, and it was produced by Pablo Trapero, Robert Bevan, and Donald Ranvaud.
The picture is about a large Argentine family that takes a northern 1000 plus kilometre road trip in an old cramped motor-home to attend a wedding. The family takes part in many adventures along their way to the wedding.
Plot
The comedy-drama tells the story of Emilia (
Graciana Chironi
Graciana Abraciano de Chironi (1921 – February 4, 2017) was an Argentine film actress.
Chironi was the grandmother of well-known Argentine director Pablo Trapero.
She worked in the cinema of Argentina.Misiones
Misiones (, ''Missions'') is one of the 23 provinces of Argentina, located in the northeastern corner of the country in the Mesopotamia region. It is surrounded by Paraguay to the northwest, Brazil to the north, east and south, and Corrientes P ...
, the village of her birth.
The Province of Misiones, where the village is located, is over 1000 kilometres away, on the Brazilian border in the farthest north-east part of Argentina.
Nevertheless, the large family decides to embark on a weekend long trip to take their grandmother to the wedding in a beat-up motor-home.
While the members have feuds, intrigues and love affairs on the journey, they, mostly, have to accept each other's quirks and faults, and give each other a lot of space along the way as they encounter a few problems on their long road-trip.
The film ends with Emilia in an introspective moment. She drinks her
mate
Mate may refer to:
Science
* Mate, one of a pair of animals involved in:
** Mate choice, intersexual selection
** Mating
* Multi-antimicrobial extrusion protein, or MATE, an efflux transporter family of proteins
Person or title
* Friendship ...
and appears to contemplate her family and life.
Cast
*
Graciana Chironi
Graciana Abraciano de Chironi (1921 – February 4, 2017) was an Argentine film actress.
Chironi was the grandmother of well-known Argentine director Pablo Trapero.
She worked in the cinema of Argentina.neo-realist fashion, used non-actors when he filmed.
The grandmother in the film (
Graciana Chironi
Graciana Abraciano de Chironi (1921 – February 4, 2017) was an Argentine film actress.
Chironi was the grandmother of well-known Argentine director Pablo Trapero.
She worked in the cinema of Argentina.Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires ( or ; ), officially the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires ( es, link=no, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires), is the capital and primate city of Argentina. The city is located on the western shore of the Río de la Plata, on South ...
La Cruz, Corrientes
La Cruz is a town in Corrientes Province, Argentina. It is the capital of San Martín Department, Corrientes
San Martín Department is a Departments of Argentina, department of Corrientes Province in Argentina.
The provincial subdivision has a ...
; Argentina.
Distribution
The film was first presented at the
Venice Film Festival
The Venice Film Festival or Venice International Film Festival ( it, Mostra Internazionale d'Arte Cinematografica della Biennale di Venezia, "International Exhibition of Cinematographic Art of the Venice Biennale") is an annual film festival he ...
on 6 September 2004. Later in the month it made its North American debut at the
Toronto International Film Festival
The Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF, often stylized as tiff) is one of the largest publicly attended film festivals in the world, attracting over 480,000 people annually. Since its founding in 1976, TIFF has grown to become a permane ...
on 16 September 2004.
It screened at various film festivals, including: the Rio de Janeiro International Film Festival, Brazil; the New York Film Festival, USA; the
Chicago International Film Festival
The Chicago International Film Festival is an annual film festival held every fall. Founded in 1964 by Michael Kutza, it is the longest-running competitive film festival in North America. Its logo is a stark, black and white close up of the comp ...
* Argentina: 30 September 2004.
* Brazil: 9 December 2005.
* France: 1 December 2004.
* Germany: 23 February 2006.
* Spain: 4 March 2005.
* United Kingdom: 18 November 2005.
Critical reception
Stephen Holden, film critic for ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'', liked the film and the direction of Pablo Trapero, and wrote, "Don't fret if you find it frustrating to unscramble the blood ties or follow the fragmented domestic dramas that jostle one another in Pablo Trapero's bighearted ensemble comedy...Without becoming intimate with any one person, you come to know them collectively."
''
Time Out
Time-out, Time Out, or timeout may refer to:
Time
* Time-out (sport), in various sports, a break in play, called by a team
* Television timeout, a break in sporting action so that a commercial break may be taken
* Timeout (computing), an enginee ...
'' film reviews wrote, " becomes clear we've seen a film of subtlety and wisdom, a shaggy-dog story about learning to deal with disappointment, compromise, confusion and loss: learning, in short, to survive life in all its painful truth and beauty."
Film critic Diego Lerer, a member of
FIPRESCI
The International Federation of Film Critics (FIPRESCI, short for Fédération Internationale de la PRESse CInématographique) is an association of national organizations of professional film critics and film journalists from around the world fo ...
, wrote an extensive essay on Pablo Trapero's cinema works. He said of the film, "The 'families' in ''Rolling Family'' are already morally 'corrupted.' It is never clearly spoken, but one of the reasons is obvious: they live in the capital. They have urbanised, diversified, and standardised themselves; they are no longer the safeguard against problems, but are now a part of them, and perhaps among the most serious ones...the characters are presented in a much crueler and hostile way, and the filmmaker does not just look at 'the others' with a dark gaze, but also at 'us'."
Critic Neil Young wrote, "''Familia rodante'' nimbly dramatises the clash between old ways and new, making this a socially-conscious road movie with genuine texture and warmth... hear of the show is Chironi, very much front-and-centre as Emilia – the actress is actually Trapero's own grandmother, and as well as making some subtle points about family, maturity and the state of Argentina, it also works very well as a heartfelt, elaborately autobiographical tribute/farewell to a beloved relative."
Awards
Wins
* Gijón International Film Festival, Spain: Best Actress, Graciana Chironi; Best Director, Pablo Trapero; 2004.
* Guadalajara Mexican Film Festival:
FIPRESCI
The International Federation of Film Critics (FIPRESCI, short for Fédération Internationale de la PRESse CInématographique) is an association of national organizations of professional film critics and film journalists from around the world fo ...
Prize, Pablo Trapero; 2005.
* Lima Latin American Film Festival, Peru: Best Actress, Liliana Capurro; 2005.
Nominations
* Gijón International Film Festival: Grand Prix Asturias, Best Feature, Pablo Trapero; 2004.
*
Argentine Film Critics Association Awards
The Argentine Film Critics Association ( es, Asociación de Cronistas Cinematográficos de la Argentina) is an organization of Argentine-based journalists and correspondents. The association presents the ''Silver Condor Awards'' (''Premios Cóndor ...
: Silver Condor, Best New Actress, Graciana Chironi; 2005.
cinenacional.com
Cinenacional.com is a web portal and web-based database about Argentine cinema. It is the most comprehensive site for information about the Argentine film industry, with a vast array of information on films, television programs, directors, actors, ...
La Nación
''La Nación'' () is an Argentine daily newspaper. As the country's leading conservative newspaper, ''La Nación''s main competitor is the more liberal '' Clarín''. It is regarded as a newspaper of record for Argentina.
Its motto is: "''La Nac ...